The Kitchen, the house, the guests….

Being a chef that wanders into random people’s homes and cooks 4 to 5 course meals can be quite a crazy. The main challenge is not knowing what ‘tools’ they have, if the oven is calibrated and most importantly if they have appropriate amounts and types of dishware and utensils. At this last dinner party, I was lucky enough to cook for Dylan (a stockbroker/foodie/chef/experimenter extraordinaire). There was nothing to worry about with his kitchen. Highlights include: an industrial stove top and convection oven, a fridge stocked with condiments galore, an ice cream machine (not a suzy homemaker one), professional deep fryer, food mill, and most of all a Vita-blender/mixer!!! Holy smokes! Oh, wait, an Expresso machine too that created the scents and smells of Italy all over.

The scene in the dining room was equisite, out of a movie. Dinner was served in the ‘rotunda’, which was surrounded by stain glass windows, enclosed by a cathedral-esque painted dome and accompanied by a grandeur chandelier hanging from above. Before dinner, Dylan displayed a movie from his projector which set the scene for a laid back, fun evening. Dylan was kind enough to open a French bottle of wine from 1978. It was not the best tasting bottle and tasted a little like the earth, more graphically like soil (Sorry Dylan). However, it was an honor, knowing I was drinking wine from the same year I was born. We opened a few other bottles from Italy and California. There were six guests including myself, Dylan, Caroline, Annabel, Brad, and Nathan our resident bartender. He made us two aromatic and colorful drinks, Vodka with Tangerine (freshly squeezed) and a Cucumber concotion we conjured up over dinner. As far as the food, not my best, but hopefully tasty. We started off with French style Gnocchi, Butternut Squash and Mushrooms, then Red, White, and Blue Winter Salad consisting of red wine poached pears, white truffled fused crabmeat, and Maytag blue cheese over field greens. I experimented with 2 types of fish: Ono and Wahoo Invotini with Tomato Olive Sauce stuffed and rolled with capers, olives, crispy breadcrumbs and a medley of roasted winter vegetables. Dessert made by Dylan, crispy beignets with blueberry compote and ice cream.

It was a fun night with great people who really knew how to enjoy the beauties of life: food, wine, and NEW FRIENDS!